During an interview with MS NOW Senior Political and National Reporter Jacob Soboroff released on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) discussed recovery from the fires in the state and said that “2,500 permits have been approved within the first year. You see the sounds and noise of construction, a lot to be optimistic [about] in terms of where we are,” but “We’re not happy with the rate of that. But we are pleased to see the progress, and, again, it’s meaningful, but it’s impacted, the challenges, the headwinds of immigration policy and tariff policy are hurting the recovery and making it more costly.” And “There’s no issue relating to the state of California that is an impediment for rebuilding, period, full stop.”
Newsom said, “We’ve made tremendous progress, the fastest debris removal in American history, at least modern American history, in six months, working with the Army Corps of Engineers, working with FEMA, they did an exceptional job. And I will say this, to be fair, Donald Trump did not get in the way of that. But that process began under President Biden, who was President at the time. We established the contracts, we established the major disaster declaration. I can’t even conceive, had this happened under the Trump administration, we would still be debating which one of his contractors he would send out to do the debris removal, which one was connected to the larger construct in the administration. So, we were able to move forward, very effectively, in those first six months. We put out a detailed plan, a master plan for removal, a vision for the future of the region, we did that at the six-month mark. And we continue to wait for a simple response…from Donald Trump himself to a request for federal disaster aid that we made in February of last year.”
Newsom also criticized other cuts under the Trump administration.
Later, Soboroff asked, “What’s the impact of ICE and CBP being in L.A. on the recovery from the fires?”
Newsom responded, “It’s impacted the entire construction industry across the United States, a huge — a disproportionate — California, Texas, a few other states, up to 35, in some cases, estimated 40, 41% of the workforce are immigrants. You’ve got direct labor shortages.”
Newsom added, “I want to remind folks, 2,500 permits have been approved within the first year. You see the sounds and noise of construction, a lot to be optimistic [about] in terms of where we are, and by the way, compare it to other disasters, to put it in perspective, 14,000 homes were destroyed in the Camp Fire, in Paradise, there were just 385 permits at this time. We have…close to 2,500 permits today in Altadena and Los Angeles County. We’re not happy with the rate of that. But we are pleased to see the progress, and, again, it’s meaningful, but it’s impacted, the challenges, the headwinds of immigration policy and tariff policy are hurting the recovery and making it more costly.”
Later, Newsom said that while there are affordability issues in California, “I’ve signed 27 executive orders. There’s no issue relating to the state of California that is an impediment for rebuilding, period, full stop.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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